The Charles River Conservancy has proposed closing 5 miles of the westbound side of Soldiers Field Rd / Storrow Drive on Sundays from April to November. The proposed closure would be mornings from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m and would start at the Herter Park parking lot in Brighton and continue to the Longfellow Bridge.
The Department of Conservation and Recreation was noncommittal in its comments to the Globe and the Mayor's office did not comment. The support of our State officials (Moran, Honan, Tolman, and Galluccio) will be key to getting this approved. The DCR email address is mass.parks@state.ma.us and other ways to contact them are on its website.
Proposal would make part of Boston's Storrow Drive car-free on Sundays for recreational use - The Boston Globe
Proposal would make part of Boston's Storrow Drive car-free on Sundays for recreational use - The Boston Globe
This proposal is completely and utterly absurd. This is a HIGHWAY!! Isn't traffic bad enough. Storrow Drive already has a bike and pedestrian pathway.
ReplyDeleteHow much worse do you think it will make traffic on Sunday mornings before 10:30?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there will be a measured impact on lower Beacon Hill, Beacon Street, Kenmore Square and Commonwealth Ave. I'd love to see it during "Moving in Weekend" when all the students move in around Sept. 1. Have you ever tried navigating Storrow Drive westbound when they shutdown 1 lane for concerts at the Esplanade? It's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI digress because this takes away from the key fact that there is ALREADY A BIKE PATH that runs along the river. If you shut down Storrow Drive will there suddenly be 5000 more people running, biking, etc down it? Not likely.
The DCR should concentrate its efforts on trying to maintain their roadways before they entertain thoughts of shutting them down.
It is a huge mess when they shut down a lane of Storrow for the Hatch Shell events. The relatively few people who benefit from that is greatly outweighed by trouble for the thousands of people who get stuck in traffic. If I thought this would be anything like that I would be totally opposed to it.
ReplyDeleteThere is already a bike path on the Cambridge side of the river too but even still there seem to be a lot more people riding bikes, walking, rollerblading, etc. when Mem Drive is closed.
Don't get me wrong, I love your blog and read it daily. I just disagree with your support on this topic. Frankly, I don't see this as any different than the hatch shell lane closing.
ReplyDeleteJust because the Republic does something doesn't make it right. The section of Memorial Drive that is closed is much shorter than what is proposed in the Storrow Drive measure.
Another issue not discussed in the article is the amount of money that will be wasted by traffic details and detour postings every Sunday morning from 7:30-10:30 am.
We can't have too much free exchange of ideas (regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree) and I think you make a lot of good points. How much will this cost (in police details or other expenses)? Are there better ways to spend this money to improve access to the river or something else?
ReplyDeleteHopefully if this is tried it will be on a trial basis with before-and-after traffic monitoring, the results of which could be published on www.mass.gov/dcr. That is something that really should be done to justify the Hatch Shell lane closure and the Mem Drive closure.
If nothing else, I think it is great to have new ideas and creative thinking coming from many groups and individuals. A lot of ideas will turn out to be unworkable, but trying to consider new possibilities is the first step to improving our society.
There would be thousands more people riding bikes and enjoying Sunday mornings by the river if they closed half of Storrow Drive.
ReplyDeleteThe DCR should be disbanded if they can't take the interest of the citizens to heart. They have a mafila like stranglehold on things and are totally unreasonable and passive aggressive if not outright aggressive.
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